Despite a historic win on Saturday night that featured a franchise record 25 runs and 28 hits, the Angels bats fell asleep on Sunday afternoon accumulating just 3 total runs and 8 hits. The Halos wasted a strong effort from Tyler Anderson (who has been inconsistent all year long) and a few miscues on defense led to at least 2 of the Rockies runs. The Angels went into the top of the 9th inning down 4-2 before an Eduardo Escobar triple and Mickey Moniak double made it 4-3. With 2 outs, pinch hitter Luis Rengifo grounded out and couldn’t drive Moniak home as the Angels lost 4-3 in the series finale. Overall, the Angels outscored the Rockies 32-12 in the series, yet lost 2 out of 3 games and will now come back to Anaheim to face the Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks, two teams that are better than the Rockies.
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
Tyler Anderson gets a quality start
Despite giving up 3 runs, Tyler Anderson looked good on the mound and struck out 9 Rockies in Sunday’s outing. Anderson still had some control issues at times, walking 2 guys, but overall it was a good performance on the mound. This was Andersons first quality start since May 24th against the Red Sox, and his second outing in a row with 5+ innings pitched 3 runs or less.
He didn’t get the run support Griffin Canning did yesterday with 25 runs, but he pitched well enough to keep the Angels in the game in a very tough ballpark to pitch in. Anderson really should have only given up 2 runs, considering left fielder Taylor Ward had a liner in his glove with 1 out and a guy on first before it dropped out and then runners were on second and third with 1 out. The next play Elehuris Montero hit a sacrifice play in what should have been the third and final out of the inning.
Miscues in the field cost Angels the W
One could certainly argue what cost the Angels the win was their bats falling asleep following a 25 run performance the night before. However, they still should have won this game 3-2 as a few defensive miscues led to 2 runs for the Rockies. The first one was Ward’s dropped liner that led to an unanswered run, which I mentioned in previous paragraph regarding Anderson’s pitching performance.
The second one was because Jose Soriano tried to pick off a runner at first and threw the ball away from first baseman Hunter Renfroe, which allowed Brenton Doyle to get all the way to third base. The following batter, Ezequiel Tovar (who previously hit a homer off of Anderson in the bottom of the 5th inning) hit a single and Doyle scored to make it 4-2 Rockies. Those two miscues were pivotal in the Angels losing this game, as the 9th inning comeback came up just short and 3 runs should have been enough to win this game.
Jose Soriano looked good for the most part
Besides the error that I mentioned in the previous paragraph and one four pitch walk, Jose Soriano looked excellent on Sunday, striking out 4 batters and only giving up 1 hit and 1 walk in 2 innings pitched. His 97-99 MPH fastball mixed with his devastating 87-88 MPH curveball fooled almost every hitter he faced and it was a huge bounce-back performance following the 3 runs Soriano gave up in just 0.1 innings pitched on June 17th against the Royals. With Matt Moore still not back from the IL and Chris Devenski struggling immensely as of late, Soriano has a chance to continue to establish himself as a reliable high-leverage reliever in the Angels bullpen.
The Angels travel back to Anaheim for a 3-game series starting Monday vs. the White Sox. Reid Detmers is set to pitch against Dylan Cease as first pitch is scheduled for 6:38 PST on Monday night.
